Chapter 30
This is it, the end of the book. Connie deals with repercussions, Edward deals with repercussions, and the student float a number of rumors. About what you would expect. This was a nice bit of realism:
The book ends in such a way that a sequel is not out of the question, but no one will feel cheated out of a resolution if no sequel is forthcoming. But, Izzy, a sequel, please?
You want to know something weird, Amanda? I mean, weird in a different way than all the rest of this? After the incubus had taken its power back, Edward still looked pretty good, or would have if he wasn't insane. It wasn't an instant hormone rush to see him any more, and his eyes were still a little beady, but he really had filled out over the summer, and I bet his hair would've looked fine, too. I think he could've been popular on his own. Maybe not captain-of-the-hockey-team popular, but he could've gotten invited to parties, and girls would have liked him; he could have done perfectly fine for himself. I wondered if he'd wanted more than that or just to be sure—or if he thought the other way would've taken more work.
Some final thoughts. A solid novel, a little predictable in a couple of places. There were two or three places where a twist could have gone. Mind you, twists for their own sake are cheap ways of making an author look smarter than hir audience, so perhaps the straightforward approach has its good points too. As a serial novel, I think this mostly worked. The couple of places I think it missed were probably a result of the fact that the book existed in its finished form before being presented in its serial form. There were a few places where chapters could have ended in a more cliff-hanger-y way. I think had Izzy been writing the book as it was being published - had she been dependent on retaining readers from one installment to the next - the chapters would have ended more breathlessly. I'm not sure this would have been an overall improvement, though. Serially written novels (as opposed to serially published novels) lend themselves to numerous abuses, not the least continuity errors. I'm glad we avoided those. So. Final thoughts - I would read a sequel, and I'm looking for Izzy's other work, No Proper Lady - a romance novel. My local library HAS a copy, but it's check out. (which is good news, I think! It's in demand and stuff!). Further, I would happily read another serial novel, and review it in this way.
So, now my weekly reading project is done. I really like having something like this, and I'm open to suggestions. Right now, all I can think of is to read some book deliberately one chapter a week, but I don't know that I could do that, knowing that I didn't have to do that, you know? Perhaps if someone else were reading along with me, like some sort of virtual book club?
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